First survival, then we thrive

Here we are at Memorial Day weekend, about to embark on a new month and a new (meteorological) season. Late yesterday and early this morning we’ve been visited by tom turkeys displaying for a lonely hen who was wandering through the field behind the house. This morning a whitetail doe briefly joined the party. Over the next four to eight weeks we hope to see turkey poults and whitetail fawns behind the house, giving us indications that the local populations continue to survive and, possibly, even thrive.

mating season, tom turkeys

Photo by J. Harrington

Meanwhile, I’ve ended up reading a couple of things that left me confused and, maybe, discouraged. Not too many years ago, I used to regularly read the Treehugger blog. It drifted off my radar screen for the past few years and then reappeared this morning as I was seeking information about an article in the New York Times without going to the Times web site’s pay wall. I found what I was looking for in 'How the World Really Works' Is the Latest From Vaclav Smil and Its Getting Mixed Reception. From the review:

Smil isn't saying we need fossil fuels. He isn't saying we can't reduce our use of them, or even stop using them. He is saying it is hard and people are not willing to make the changes that have to be made, preferring to rely on techno-fantasies and distant timetables. He asks, "Will we, eventually, do so deliberately, with foresight; will we act only when forced by deteriorating conditions; or will we fail to act in a meaningful way?"

Coming on top of the mass shootings in Buffalo and then in Uvalde, the questions Smil raises fit only too well our inadequate actions on gun control and minimizing the damage from climate weirding. I’ve long been familiar with the arguments for banning large capacity magazines and “assault weapons.” Having read both Drawdown and much of Regeneration, I had become perhaps unduly optimistic about US finally making real progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Smil’s book notes our reluctance to truly confront the issues facing the world. Meanwhile, Russia invades Ukraine, further disrupting the world’s food supply, and politicians continue to throw words at each other about the causes of and solutions to our being world leaders in mass shooting deaths.

Not long ago [1994] we had a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines. According to some studies, it resulted in a detectable reduction in mass shootings. Although its provisions were upheld by the court system, it was allowed to lapse in 2004 and efforts to renew it have been unsuccessful. Perhaps, if all those of US who believe we can and must do better on protecting our school children can focus our attention on getting the lapsed provisions enacted as a primary objective and use that as a litmus test for the midterm elections, taking a longer view as the Right has, there’s a chance for success. Then the same approach could be used for the Green New Deal.

On the Fifth Day

Jane Hirshfield - 1953-

On the fifth day
the scientists who studied the rivers
were forbidden to speak
or to study the rivers.

The scientists who studied the air
were told not to speak of the air,
and the ones who worked for the farmers
were silenced,
and the ones who worked for the bees.

Someone, from deep in the Badlands,
began posting facts.

The facts were told not to speak
and were taken away.
The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent. 

Now it was only the rivers
that spoke of the rivers,
and only the wind that spoke of its bees,

while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees
continued to move toward their fruit.

The silence spoke loudly of silence,
and the rivers kept speaking 
of rivers, of boulders and air.

Bound to gravity, earless and tongueless,
the untested rivers kept speaking.

Bus drivers, shelf stockers,
code writers, machinists, accountants,
lab techs, cellists kept speaking.

They spoke, the fifth day,
of silence.

—2017

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